People don’t trust company blogs. What you should do about it.: “This result comes from a survey we did in Q2 of 2008. Have a look at the data yourself. Not only do blogs rank below newspapers and portals, they rank below wikis, direct mail, company email, and message board posts. Only 16% of online consumers who read corporate blogs say they trust them.”

I thought this article was worth reading because it draws attention to the level of suspicion held for corporations. For me, it underpins just why businesses shouldn’t blog unless they’re willing to be genuinely engaged in a conversation and not booming out marketing speak.

Does the Internet weaken our social ties? Not according to research conducted by Pew in 2004. Based on the work of Barry Wellman this study shows that those who are active in a face-to-face setting are more likely to actively use the Internet to maintain their relationships.

Wellman argues that the Internet promotes “networked individualism” which allows individuals to move beyond a small core of trusted friends and access more diverse advice from a network of contacts. While the ties between these individuals may not be strong ties, they nonetheless provide the support demanded by circumstances at the time of the contact.

But the report was conducted in 2004, before the success of Facebook and certainly before the launch of Twitter. Wellman’s study focussed on the use of emails in the maintenance of social networks. Since 2004 much has happened to reshape the way individuals participate on the Internet particularly as a result of the emergence of online social networking and bookmarking sites.

Too, the research was conducted in the US and takes no account of the way the Internet shapes social interactions in communities where net access is limited.

It’s easy for business people to be dragged into managerial speak. The jargon of an industry sucks us in to talking in the lingo of our “ist”. But all too often it’s a language that becomes, as Carolyne Lee, describes it, “turgid”. Words and phrases are emptied of meaning. Passion vanishes, swallowed by the carefully measured, lawyer-friendly, litigation-safe press release.

In Wordlings in a Web 2.0 World, Lee proposes that “word bytes” are memorable. They’re loaded with meaning and full of colour and life. They build images of subjects and events, ones that come to life and create emotion.

When I read Lee’s high praise for short, cleverly-crafted, meaning dense poetry I can’t help but reflect on the critisism heaped on Twitter by the uninformed and the intellectual alike. Twitter forces the writer to create meaning despite brevity. It is this Zen-like brevity which demands creativity, enforces discipline and has the potential to produce lasting word bytes.

Lee’s article is one that encourages me to write from the heart and to write with passion and soul. It urges me to write with brevity and purpose and to expose my humanity and imperfections.